the road goes on forever...

7 on the trails to give the joints a break.

School is a mess right now. Ughhhhhhh. 

6x800 with GWTC. I was able to stay with the fast girl (Micah) again, which made me feel good. I hope to hang onto her for a sub-19 5k later in the year. I needed a good run after the day I had.

3:03, 3:03, 2:57, 2:57, 2:52, 2:43 

It has been a surreal day. I found out this afternoon that a professor of mine at Mississippi State committed suicide last night. He left behind a wife, teenage girl, a 6-year old autistic girl, and a 3-year old boy. Not to mention plenty of students. He was a goofy man who had a fun, sarcastic personality until the last couple years. It seems like the wiring in his head went wrong or something. I am struggling with this more than I would have thought I would. For any different reasons. For myself I am going through the grief of the memories, and the sadness for his loss of life. I also feel bad for my friends at Mississippi State, who are with his wife and children right now, and have been since midnight last night, trying to hold up the pieces of what he left behind.  For his family, I feel so bad that they are left to fend without their father/husband, and to deal with grief no one should have to deal with. For him, I feel so bad that he was hurting so bad that this was his only option left. Although, I think it was more "craziness" than "sadness." I also struggle with the idea of heaven and hell and where his actions (committing suicide) sent him. I pray that God recognizes him for the good he did before things began to really spiral downhill the past few years. I hope he finally found peace, and that his family and friends can eventually find theirs as well.

Laps around San Luis, 1.25 miles each...

3 laps warm up (about 11:30 each)

3 tempo- 9:56, 9:23, 8:40 (the last was under 7 min. pace! not bad for hilly trails) 

switched it up for the cool down because people were looking at me funny because i kept running in circles 

New recipe that is so good I have to share. Even better than the muffins, if you can believe it.

Baked Chocolate-Stuffed Strawberries (haha yeah that good)

All you need: Strawberries, chocolate chips, optional whipped cream 

Take your strawberries and pull off the top. Use a small spoon (I actually use a knife carefully) and scoop out some innards . On the bottom the the strawberry, take a knife and cut a small amount of the tip off; enough so that the end is flat and can stand up on its own, but not enough to cause a hole to see through.

Stuff the strawberries with chocolate chips. I think minis work even better because they melt thoroughly. You can also use chocolate shavings. (Optional: Sprinkle with sugar before baking. I don't think it's necessary.)

Stand them on a baking pan and bake in a 400 degree oven about 10-12 minutes or until strawberries look softer and chocolate is melted.  

Serve warm with whipped cream or cool whip. Yummmm.

Credit: Rachael Ray 

Also in non-running news, this is what I have been working on for the past year. Just a rough draft. 99% of hurricane research is done using a data set 1850 til now. My goal is to reconstruct past hurricane tracks that have been cited in newspapers, ship logs, etc., by basing them off of modern tracks that hit similar areas. This is a map of the 1766 hurricane season according to the tracks I digitized. I'll stop talking because I am sure no one is reading this, plus it probably only makes sense to me. But this is what I do. These tracks (although only estimates) have never been seen before! 

6 easy with my friend Michael. Could feel Thursday's run a little bit. It's getting warm- 75 degrees today. A cold front will be coming through tonight though. I'm going to enjoy the cool weather while it lasts.

30 miles this week. Finally! Slowly but surely...